HOME | DD

Description
A couple of blubber balls out in the snow. One has caught a plated worm from the underlying soil.

One of the things one can see on the Frozen Islands, on the planet Cerulea, are the odd round creatures known as blubber balls. These are a type of shield head. As shield heads do not have any skin structures that could be turned into a fuzzy integument, these have adapted to the cold in a different way. By being really fat.

Beneath their skin lies a layer of blubber so thick it makes them look almost like walking balls around the size of an average dog. This, combined with their endothermic metabolism, keeps them warm in the cold habitats they frequent.

Blubber ball beaks are long and narrow, and often used for probing the soil for burrowing invertebrates like plated worms and sac worms. They have, however, also been known to feed on washed up sea creatures on the island coasts. When one lives somewhere as harsh as the Frozen Islands, it does not pay to be a picky eater.

Blubber balls are normally seen alone or in pairs. They tend to move about somewhat slowly and awkwardly. At the same time, though, they are capable of remarkable short bursts of speed when threatened (such as by snow fort builders).

In summer months, they use their beaks and their hoof-like feet to dig their dens. Soils can become too hard for this in the colder times of the year. The summer months are also when breeding takes place. As simultaneous hermaphrodites (like most shield heads), all blubber balls can potentially end up laying eggs and rearing young. They rarely lay more than one or two eggs at a time, and this is done in the den. Offspring are cared for until near adulthood, which occurs at around a year old.

Among terrestrial shield heads, the endothermic metabolism of the blubber balls is shared with the tentacle-faced shield heads. However, they are not closely related to them. One of the glaring differences (apart from blubber balls lacking facial tentacles) is that the tentacle-faces stand out from other shield heads in having separate sexes, which blubber balls do not. Genetic studies have shown the closest living relatives of blubber balls are serpentine shield heads and cave gliders, though likely their truly close cousins are some now extinct shield head group.

Description
A couple of blubber balls out in the snow. One has caught a plated worm from the underlying soil.

One of the things one can see on the Frozen Islands, on the planet Cerulea, are the odd round creatures known as blubber balls. These are a type of shield head. As shield heads do not have any skin structures that could be turned into a fuzzy integument, these have adapted to the cold in a different way. By being really fat.

Beneath their skin lies a layer of blubber so thick it makes them look almost like walking balls around the size of an average dog. This, combined with their endothermic metabolism, keeps them warm in the cold habitats they frequent.

Blubber ball beaks are long and narrow, and often used for probing the soil for burrowing invertebrates like plated worms and sac worms. They have, however, also been known to feed on washed up sea creatures on the island coasts. When one lives somewhere as harsh as the Frozen Islands, it does not pay to be a picky eater.

Blubber balls are normally seen alone or in pairs. They tend to move about somewhat slowly and awkwardly. At the same time, though, they are capable of remarkable short bursts of speed when threatened (such as by snow fort builders).

In summer months, they use their beaks and their hoof-like feet to dig their dens. Soils can become too hard for this in the colder times of the year. The summer months are also when breeding takes place. As simultaneous hermaphrodites (like most shield heads), all blubber balls can potentially end up laying eggs and rearing young. They rarely lay more than one or two eggs at a time, and this is done in the den. Offspring are cared for until near adulthood, which occurs at around a year old.

Among terrestrial shield heads, the endothermic metabolism of the blubber balls is shared with the tentacle-faced shield heads. However, they are not closely related to them. One of the glaring differences (apart from blubber balls lacking facial tentacles) is that the tentacle-faces stand out from other shield heads in having separate sexes, which blubber balls do not. Genetic studies have shown the closest living relatives of blubber balls are serpentine shield heads and cave gliders, though likely their truly close cousins are some now extinct shield head group.